1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording and playback device and a program that, while repeatedly replaying a material recorded over a certain period of time, overdubs new material onto the material being repeatedly replayed.
2. Description of the Related Art
A technology is known which, while repeatedly replaying a material recorded over a certain period of time, overdubs new material onto the material being repeatedly replayed (loop sound data). As this type of technology, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open (Kokai) Publication No, 2011-112679 discloses an automatic musical performance device that repeatedly replays an event-recorded layer in a recording area composed of a plurality of layers (tracks), and performs overdubbing to record an event generated in response to a musical performance operation on a layer newly designated during the repeat p playback, whereby a musical accompaniment pattern to which musical modifications desired by the user have been made can be created through a process of extemporaneous trial and error.
The above-described technology disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open (Kokai) Publication No. 2011-112679, material is aimed at musical instrument digital interface (MIDI) events as material to record in response to musical performance operations. However, in recent years, a recording and playback device referred to as a so-called looper (loop sampler) has been put to practical use, which records sampled audio data, musical sound data generated by a sound source, or the like over a certain period of time, successively overdubs new material while repeatedly replaying the recorded material, and thereby creates a musical composition.
Material that is initially recorded in this looper is, for example, a sound that is emitted at each heat of a bar. While this recorded material is being repeatedly replayed, new material is successively overdubbed. The reason for initially recording the sound that keeps the beat is that this sound can be used as an indicator sound for indicating the beats of the bars and whereby the tempo can be more easily kept when new material is subsequently recorded.
However, although the time required to play one bar is short, it is difficult for an inexperienced player to accurately keep the beats of the bar. If timings at which sounds keep the beats fluctuate and become faster or slower than the intended beats, new material is overdubbed at these fluctuating timings, resulting in an unstable and poor-quality musical composition.
Also, in the conventional looper, the amount of time elapsed from when recording is started by the operation of a recording switch to when the recording is ended is considered as one bar, and this recorded data for one bar is used as loop sound data.
However, it is difficult to operate the recording switch such that the amount of time considered as one bar accurately coincides with the regular amount of time for one bar defined by meter and tempo.
Accordingly, there is a problem in the conventional looper in that high-quality loop data having a stable rhythm cannot be created.
The present invention has been conceived in light of the above-described problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a recording and playback device and a program capable of creating accurate loop sound data by relatively simple operations.